Pilot who died in Scottsdale was a veterinarian who flew for decades

On By Littum

The pilot of a private jet who was killed in a crash Monday at Scottsdale Airport was identified by police as Joie Vitosky, 78.

“I honestly think, wholeheartedly think the reason these other passengers are alive – that’s because of how he handled it yesterday,” Jana Schertzer, Vitosky’s daughter, said Tuesday.

In a telephone interview with Arizona Republic on Tuesday night, Vitosky’s daughter, Schertzer, said her father had been flying for 60 years. He started when he joined the US Marine Corps and piloted helicopters before switching to jets.

Vitosky did not look to have a career in heaven, his daughter said. He studied to become an engineer before starting flying for the military and serving several trips in Vietnam.

After leaving the marines, Vitosky had an eclectic flying career, Schertzer said. He flew people like Jesse Jackson, Maureen Reagan and owners of oil companies. He flew trips to pick up parts for companies such as FedEx and also flew transplant patients waiting for life -saving operations.

“It’s a lot of things that can happen in a private plane,” Schertzer said. “A lot of rich people, but he had a lot of people who needed something immediate.”

Schertzer said her father had flown most of her family members at one point, including Schertzer and her two brothers.

“We all grew up on trips with my dad when we were able to – when there was a seat available in the plane, and the passengers didn’t mind to go,” she said.

Schertzer said she expected some people to assume assumptions about his father based on his age. She said he remained an extremely skilled pilot and noted that her grandparents and great -grandparents on his side of the family lived far into the 90s.

He was the epitome of health, Schertzer said. “Like nothing wrong. His vision was perfect – better than 20/20 vision. “

Schertzer said she and the rest of her father’s passengers felt safe when he was in the cockpit.

While many 78-year-olds spend time enjoying their retirement, Schertzer said her father fell in love with flying.

“Instead of knowing he withdrew and did nothing, he did literally until the day he died,” she said.

Vitosky is survived by three children and two grandchildren, Schertzer said.

What happened at Scottsdale Airport?

Around 1 p.m. On Monday, on Monday, private jets collided on the runway after the landing equipment failed on a Learjet 35A arriving from Austin, Texas, according to airport officials.

The aircraft, which had two pilots, including Vitosky, and two passengers on board, walked out of the runway and hit a parked Gulfstream jet with someone on board. Two people were critically wounded. One -third was injured but not critical.

Air traffic controllers redirected aircraft after the collision took place, according to audio recordings. A controller can be heard that tells a pilot about maintaining the height and “walking around.”

“We just had an emergency,” says the controller.

National Transportation Safety Board handled the investigation.

The runway at Scottsdale Airport opened shortly before 7 p.m. 21 Monday.

What do we know about the people who were injured?

Rain Hannah Andreani, 43, is the only person aboard the planes that have been identified in public than Vitosky.

Andreani is the girlfriend of Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil. Neil owned Learjet according to an archiving at Wyoming State Secretary. He was not on board, according to the vocalist’s legal representative Worrick Robinson IV who posted A statement about the crash of the band’s Instagram account.

Andreani’s presence on the aircraft was confirmed on Tuesday by Mötley Crües Manager, Allen Kovac. Kovac said Andreani was with a friend and they were both injured, according to CNN.

Crash is the latest in a series of aircraft collisions

Monday’s crash came after 10 people were killed In a plane crash near Nome, Alaskaon February 6th. Two crashes, one in Philadelphia and the other in Washington, DCtook place in January, killing over 70 people in total.

The last deadly crash at Scottsdale Airport was in 2018. A pilot, student pilot and four passengers were killed after the plane crashed shortly after starting.

Scottsdale Airport is “one of the country’s busiest airports with a single,” according to Experience Scottsdale, a nonprofit working with Scottsdale and Paradise Valley to market the area of ​​tourism. The airport logs over 133,000 starts and landings each year, according to the group.

Few items show that the airport’s runways were judged in good condition and measured 8,249 feet – about one and a half kilometers – in length.

NTSB shows 15 deadly flight events in the Scottsdale area and four incidents involving a serious injury in which the earliest goes back to the 1970s.

Two of the serious injuries involved students’ pilots, one involved a pilot who had a hard landing after the aircraft’s engine lost the flow, and another involved a pilot who had a forced landing after assessing their height and approval.

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Minnah Arshad from USA Today, Craig Shoup and Melonee hurt Tennesseean and Catherine Reagor of the Arizona Republic contributed to this article.